Are Steering Locks worth the cash?

trippy

Hi Everyone.

Is there any evidence at all that steering locks reduce the incidence of car crime?

T.

black-saturn

My mum and dad put theirs on even when its in their own locked garage. It reduces your insurance payments apparantly.

chrisw

If they want your car then probably won't make much difference. However, it may deter an opportunist who's not really bothered what car it is. You would expect that with 2 cars, one with a lock, one without, they would choose the one without. But perhaps that's giving them too much credit for intelligence.

BenL

I have the large disklok. I've used it on all my cars and never had any bother. One was a modified car that got a lot of attention.

It is heavy to use and my girlfriend doesn't like it but i've had it 7 years now without any problems.

Its was £80.

Protects the airbag from theft, and these cost a fair few £hundred to replace if someone takes it.

When they first came out professional theives could not get them off in under 5 mins.

They have had 7 years working on them and I thinkits down to 2 mins with a lot of noise now.

Your average thief probably couldn't do it fast.

Ben

gizmoleeds

I used to read a popular car magazine and they did one of those comparison tests a few times of them and most could be pulled off with a bit of brute force in under two minutes

I remember the ones which cover the steering wheel were best (ie. the magazine's "theives" couldn't get them off within the time limit).


(this kind of thing)

BenL

Thats the model I have but i've got the limited edition Silver one.

wolvesinwales

Apart from the point above that if given the choice the thief would go for the car without any protection, the bar type that fit across the steering wheel are a legal way of carrying an iron bar around with you in case of an attempted car jacking.

shellsuit

I'd say the Disklok is the best one which is why i use it. Yes so it's a bit big and heavy but i remember these tests the other posters refer to and it was something like an 8 minute time limit. They got the disklok off after 28 minutes and with a heck of load of noise. Also it is thatcham cat 2 so should get you a few quid off your insurance.

Remember though these are only useful to stop your car being stolen or your airbag nicked. I always keep valuables locked away in the boot and never anything on show as this is what an opportunist thief is looking for and where a good alarm system comes in handy.

Also ask your local car alarm specialist if they have any spare window stickers from a good alarm manufacturer like TOAD e.t.c. and just stick them in your windows as a deterant.

tomstickland

If you buy one then get one that covers the whole whell, otherwise they'll hacksaw a chunk out of the wheel, like they did to my car. They didn't get far with mine though because I took the rotor arm out of the distributor. LOL.

It's all about options -if there are two cars and yours has the wheel lock then yours is the less attractive and it'll take them a few more minutes to nick it.

skiddy2k

BenL wrote:

Thats the model I have but i've got the limited edition Silver one.

they mainly act as a deterrent. i mean, if you really wanted to break into a car and drive away with it, there are always out of it.

the disklok pictured previously is about £79.99 but the silver one that BenL mentioned is still on the shelves, i saw it in halfords for £69.99 yesterday.

many people still rather choose the yellow one to the silver one due to the visual deterrent, but the choice would be yours!

Skiddy

gizmoleeds

skiddy2k wrote:

they mainly act as a deterrent. i mean, if you really wanted to break into a car and drive away with it, there are always out of it.

But with the full steering wheel covering ones like the disklok it would take at least five minutes, heavy electrical tools and a lot of noise, which practically eliminates the possibilty of your car being stolen from most public car parks or outside your house.